Prenatal care is having a healthy lifestyle while you are pregnant. This includes making good choices and going to the doctor for regular visits. You are more likely to have a healthy birth if you maintain a healthy pregnancy.

• Keep your blood sugar level up by eating whole, healthy foods and plenty of protein. Do this in small, frequent meals throughout the day. Vary your diet as much as possible.
• Keep yourself hydrated. Water is great. If you are nauseated and can’t keep water down, add a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of salt to it. This will rehydrate you quickly and ease much of your nausea.
• Get plenty of rest. Pace yourself. Take a 10-minute break as often as you can. Try and nap as much as you can. Go to sleep early and rise as late as you can get away with. Get in the habit of grabbing bits of rest whenever you can.
• Stay confident in your body! Look for positive information about birth and pregnancy. Avoid the birth horror stories people want to tell. Your body knows how to birth. Don’t let anyone try to tell you it will fail. If someone wants to tell you about her horrible birth, invite her to share it with you after you have had your baby. If someone has advice about what you absolutely have to do, take it with a grain of salt. There is no one best way to give birth for every woman. You can find your best way, and you will have an easier time doing so if you hear about positive experiences.
• Get educated, take classes and learn all you can so that you can make educated choices about the care you receive. But at the heart of what you learn remember this: You don’t have to be taught to birth successfully. When it comes down to the physical work of giving birth, the best thing you can do is put your intellect out the window and let your body do the work it knows how to do. That doesn’t mean you have to be detached from the process-quite the opposite. It means that you don’t need to rely on a complicated technique to get through contractions well, and you don’t need to hold your breath and count to 10 to push your baby into the world. You’ve been breathing since you were born and you know how. You can do it in your sleep. Likewise, women are perfectly capable of giving birth without any conscious direction at all. What will help your baby be born? Your willingness to experience the process, pain and all, and to follow your body’s direction. Your body will tell you what you need to do if you let it. And your body is the best expert on what it needs to give birth.